Lincoln Mayor Don Wesely said today the $260,000 a year awarded to the
Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department will have a significant
positive impact on the health of the community. The Health Department
received state grants for its Children's Environmental Health Protection
Initiative and its Nurturing Parents Project. They were two of the
first projects receiving grants from the Excellence in Health Care Cash
Fund, which was created from the state's share of the 1998 federal
tobacco settlement.

"Community health is a priority in Lincoln, especially for our
children," Mayor Wesely said. "This funding will help us address the
infant mortality issue and the environmental hazards our children may
face every day."

The Children's Environmental Health Protection Initiative is scheduled
to receive $145,000 a year for three years. It is designed to reduce
the incidence of illness and disease in children caused by exposures to
environmental health hazards and toxins. The first year of the grant
will focus on a community education effort to increase public awareness
of the health risks. The primary goal of the education campaign is to
identify and take action against exposures in homes, schools and
neighborhoods.

The second and third years of the program will be dedicated to improving
medical assessment of common environmental hazards and exposures. The
Health Department will work closely with the medical community to
increase knowledge on why environmental toxins pose greater health risks
to children than adults; what common pathways of exposure exist; and
what actions can be taken to reduce these health risks. A final
component of the program will offer in-home environmental health
assessments and action steps to minority and low-income families.

The goal of the Nurturing Parents Project, which is scheduled to receive
$115,000 a year for three years, is to reduce infant mortality. In
1998, the Lincoln and Lancaster County infant mortality rate was 8
percent, which is higher than the state rate of 7.3 percent and the
national rate of 7.2 percent. Factors such as smoking, financial
stress, domestic violence, teen pregnancy and substance abuse can
negatively impact the health of a pregnant mother and newborn. The
project will provide intensive home visitation by public health nurses
to 900 at-risk pregnant women each year. Because families from racial
and ethnic minority communities have a higher risk of infant mortality,
the priority for intervention will be in minority populations.